Marine Life Society of
South Australia Inc.
Newsletter
July 2009
No. 367
Next Meeting
The July meeting of the Marine Life Society
will be held at the Glenelg
Marine & Scuba upstairs
training room (the old Adventure Blue clubrooms) on the Patawalonga frontage at
8.00pm on Tuesday 21st July. Please enter via the stairs at the side of the
building. If you cannot find us on the night then phone me
on 0407395566 and I will give you directions.
Our speaker will be Travis Elsdon who
will be giving a talk on ‘Estuarine Fish of South Australia:
diversity and a focus on black bream’. The talk will summarise three areas of
research. First, outlining fish diversity within estuaries and highlight
estuaries with unique and rare species and discuss how fish assemblages change
throughout a year in response to both salinity and fish biology. Second,
discuss data on nutrients and how they affect fish and estuarine processes,
with reference to some of the challenges that estuaries face. Last, will focus
on black bream, a dominant estuarine species, and show data on recruitment,
which highlights that specific estuaries are supporting the population of bream
in South Australia.
CONTENTS
The Search For The Wreck Of The Vivid (Steve
Reynolds)
More About Dragonets (Steve
Reynolds)
Mavis Hoey Award 2009(Steve
Reynolds)
Nudibranch Discovery At
Port Hughes Jetty (Steve Reynolds)
2010 Calendars
The 2010 calendars should be available at this
meeting. I am going to invite all the contributors to receive their free copy
and to purchase any others they want.
Hopefully my shed will be a lot emptier by the
end of the meeting. I will be asking members present to take some to sell and
to purchase. Same price as the last few years in spite of cost increases.
.The Search For
The Wreck Of The Vivid
by Steve Reynolds
In June 2009, Eric Kotz from Port Lincoln contacted us. He said that he has
been researching the wooden two-masted ketch Vivid
for some time and had read my recent article about her (“The Ketch Vivid”,
MLSSA Newsletter No.364, April 2009).
We later talked on the telephone for a while and Eric
said that he needed a copy of my original photograph of the painting of the
vessel for his work. I no longer had the original photo, but slipping down the
road to take more shots was not a problem. I was soon able to email two photos
off to Eric, including this one below: -.
The painting of
the Vivid
(by (J?) Prideaux
- located at Phillip Kennedy Centre’s
Nursing Home in Wigley St, Largs Bay – photo taken by
Steve Reynolds 13/6/09)
(As stated in my article titled “The Ketch Vivid”,
(“MLSSA Newsletter” No.364, April 2009), the Vivid
had one deck and a square stern. She was built in Latrobe, Tasmania in 1876.
Her dimensions were 48 tons, 65’ long, 18’6” wide and 6’7” deep. She arrived in
Port Adelaide, South Australia in February 1877 and was registered by
Edward W Russell and JT Russell. She made her first trip in SA waters from Port
Adelaide to Port Wakefield later that same year (1877) and was in that trade
until mid-1882. She then began trading from Port Adelaide to the upper reaches
of Spencer Gulf, including Port Pirie, Port Broughton, Port Augusta and
Franklin Harbour. Walter Swiggs, Captain Thomas Swiggs’ youngest son, once
owned the Vivid
in partnership with Deex and Fricker
(around 1900*). Deex and Fricker**
later continued to own the Vivid
in partnership without Swiggs. An auxillary engine was added to her in 1915. On
9th
April 1932 she left Tumby Bay for Port Lincoln and wasn’t seen again. In his
book “South Australian Shipwrecks – A Data Base 1802-1989”, Peter Christopher
says that she was lost in a gale near Point Bolingbroke, Eyre Peninsula. Three
lives and her cargo of 1000 bags of wheat were lost. According to Peter
Christopher, no trace of the Vivid
was found.)
* (According to “The Fricker Story” by Ronald
Parsons, the Vivid
came under Fricker control in the big re-arrangement
of 1897 involving (Edward John?) Wright and other small
vessel owners.)
** (Ronald Parsons also says in “The Fricker
Story” that Richard Fricker became a partner with
many other well-known people, owning small ships. In 1897 he, David Deex and a Mr Wersen jointly
bought the Vivid.
Mr Wersen, however, was soon replaced by Walter F
Swiggs. Swiggs himself was shortly replaced by Captain Edward John Wright. In
1918/9, Richard Fricker was listed as part owner of
the Vivid
with WJ Spells.)
Eric Kotz soon replied to my email, saying: -
“Thank you for the
photos of the painting. It is almost certainly the Vivid.
At this stage, these are the only known images of her.
Although painted in a some-what romantic style, and
not a lot of fine detail, a local identity from that era confirms that it is
almost certainly her. Most of the ketches had modifications and additions that
detracted from their looks but apparently she had "classic lines and
looked beautiful under full sail.” I have a local Tumby Bay historian searching
for a possible photographic image of her as she has a large collection. Several
photos show up to six ketches tied up at the Tumby jetty at a time but only a
few are named and some others are easily identifiable such as my favourite, the
old Hawk*
(still going), with its magnificent figurehead.
* (The 84-ton
wooden two-masted ketch Hawk was built in Auckland New Zealand in 1881. Eric
Kotz says that she had a magnificent hawk’s head figurehead. She was registered
in the names of David Deex and Richard Fricker from May 1910 to September 1913.)
I have been
re-motivated and will soon revive local interest with an article in the local
paper. Almost every boat over here now has chart plotter GPS and sophisticated
echo sounders, so I am hoping that fishermen may report anything unusual
they may come across in the search area. I have followed up some information
from items trawled up over the years and, although not from the Vivid,
they have at least allowed me to eliminate some sites and at least reduce the
search area to a rough line from Point Bolingbroke to Point Boston, which is
the northern entrance to Port Lincoln. The bottom end of this area now has a
huge movement of boats in it since the advent of the tuna farms - I believe the
Vivid is a little
north of the tuna farms but they are gradually moving northward into the
more probable area.
When I have
written up a rough draft for the Port Lincoln Times, I will send you a copy.
Although I may be looking for a needle in a haystack, I feel as if it has at
least grown to the size of a knitting needle. Thanks again for your help and I
will keep in touch.”
There is now a
real possibility that the Vivid
herself may be found again. I wish Eric good luck in his search for the wreck
of the Vivid.
Stay posted for further updates.
FURTHER READING:
“Captain Thomas Swiggs” by Steve Reynolds, “MLSSA
Newsletter”, February 2007 (No.340).
“The Ketch Vivid”
by Steve Reynolds, “MLSSA Newsletter”, April 2009 (No.364).
“Ketches of South Australia” by Ronald Parsons. ISBN
0 9599387 9 6.
“The Fricker Story” by Ronald Parsons. ISBN 0 90418 82 9.
“South Australian Shipwrecks – A Data Base 1802-1989” by Peter Christopher. ISBN 0 9588006 1 8.
by Steve Reynolds
I probably
should have mentioned a couple of things in my recent article about dragonets.
Since writing the article, I recalled my article “From Dragonet To Thornfish” in our September 2006 Newsletter (No.336). In
that article, I said that we once called a thornfish, Bovichtus
angustifrons, a
dragonet.
Here is David Muirhead’s
photo of a thornfish. It is slide No.1330d in our Photo Index. It also featured
in our 2007 calendar of SA Marine Life.
Thornfish, Bovichtus
angustifrons (taken by David Muirhead)
There is still
much confusion over Dragonets, and Thornfish are still referred to as
Dragonets.
Four
species of ‘dragonets’ are included in “The Marine & Freshwater Fishes of
South Australia” by Scott, Glover & Southcott. These are all Callionymus
species from the family Callionymidae. These are all
referred to as being Stinkfish. There is the Spotted, Painted, Common and Bight
stinkfish.
Why stinkfish? Well according to the book, the spotted stinkfish “is said to be capable of giving off a most
offensive odour”. Then there are details regarding
fishermen cooking and tasting a common stinkfish. It
had a bitter taste and they spat it out again. They still became sick and it
was noticed that seagulls would not touch the fish. The scientific names for
the four species featured in “The Marine & Freshwater Fishes of South
Australia” (1980) were: -
Callionymus calcuratus (spotted stinkfish)
Callionymus papilio (painted stinkfish)
Callionymus calauropomus (common stinkfish)
Callionymus phasis (bight stinkfish)
It seems that
these names have all changed as these are the names given in “Coastal Fishes of
South-eastern Australia”: -
Repomucenus calcuratus (spotted stinkfish, now spotted sand-dragonet)
Eocallionymus papilio (painted stinkfish)
Foetorepus calauropomus (common stinkfish)
Callionymus phasis (bight stinkfish) is not featured in the book. It is apparently a
deep-water species. According to the FishBase web
page found at
http://www.fishbase.org/Summary/speciesSummary.php?ID=14439&genusname=Foetorepus&speciesname=phasis
, the bight stinkfish is (now?) called Foetorepus phasis.
Two further species are
featured in “Coastal Fishes of South-eastern Australia”, the rough-head
dragonet, Repomucenus
limiceps, and marbled
dragonet, Synchiropus
ocellatus.
It seems that
the marbled dragonet, Synchiropus
ocellatus, is closely
related to the mandarinfish, Synchiropus splendidus and the
picturesque dragonet, Synchiropus
picturatus.
As described in my
article “Dragonets”, Alexius Sutandio had seen and photographed a pair of
painted stinkfish, Ecocallionymus
papilio, at Port
Noarlunga reef. This means that the species can now be added to my list of fish
sightings at Port Noarlunga reef (included in my 2006 Journal article “The
Marine Life at Port Noarlunga Reef”)
Synchiropus ocellatus picture
by Randall,
J.E.
Marbled
dragonet, Synchiropus
ocellatus
Painted stinkfish, Eocallionymus
papilio
(Taken at Port Noarlunga
reef by Alexius Sutandio)
by Steve Reynolds
Last year, our
Society assisted me by publishing in our monthly newsletter a series of four
articles relating to the history of Port Adelaide. I had submitted each of the
four articles for the Port Adelaide Historical Society’s Mavis Hoey Award. I
later reported at one of our general meetings that my articles were not
successful. I am now able to report my success in the 2009 award. I had been
allowed to resubmit the articles for this year’s Mavis Hoey Award. I submitted
them all together as a series, with some additional follow-up articles also
published in our newsletter. A slightly different version of one of the
articles had also been published in Dive Log magazine. All of the articles had
also been posted on the Internet. This approach was successful for me this time
around. (A copy of my submission is shown below.) I have just received a letter
of congratulations from the Port Adelaide Historical Society, advising me of my
success. The Society said that my articles “have extended the knowledge and material
available regarding the Port Adelaide district and its history”. I was duly
invited to attend the Society’s AGM on 17th
June to receive the award. I am thrilled that my name will now be alongside
previous award winners, particularly that of maritime historian Ronald Parsons
who won the 2008 award. None of this would have been possible without the
support of the Marine Life Society. I extend my thanks to our Society for
helping me to win the Mavis Hoey Award for 2009.
Steve Reynolds
A copy of my
submission is shown below: -
“BRIEF
DESCRIPTION OF THE AREA OF RESEARCH/ RECORDING/ HISTORICAL INTEREST:
The
writing (& subsequent publication) of several historical articles in which
Port Adelaide played a major role. All of the articles concerned were published
in the “MLSSA Newsletter”, the monthly publication of the Marine Life Society
of South Australia. Each and every issue of the newsletter is also published
through the Internet.
The titles
of the articles (& the month of publication) were as follows: -
“The
Dunnikier Slip (& Its Links With The City
Of Adelaide)”
(April
2008 & http://www.mlssa.asn.au/nletters/april2008.htm
)
“The
Dredge South Australian &
The Glenelg Barge”
(May 2008
& www.mlssa.asn.au/nletters/may2008.htm)
(A similar
article titled “The South
Australian (a.k.a. The Dredge) & The
Glenelg Barge” was also published in the May 2008 issue of “Dive Log
Australasia” magazine.)
“The
Schooner Dorothy H Sterling (and
other ships associated with her)”
(June 2008
& http://www.mlssa.asn.au/nletters/june2008.htm
)
*Two
follow-up articles to “The Schooner Dorothy H
Sterling (and other ships associated with
her)” were published in the July 2008 issue of the “MLSSA Newsletter”
(& http://www.mlssa.asn.au/nletters/july2008.htm). These
were “The A.D.Edwardes
Collection Of Shipping Photographs In The State Library Of
South Australia” and “More About The ER Sterling”.
“Captain Swiggs (& some
of the ships associated with him and his family)” (In 4 parts from August to
November 2008
&
http://www.mlssa.asn.au/nletters/august2008.htm
http://www.mlssa.asn.au/nletters/september2008.htm
http://www.mlssa.asn.au/nletters/october2008.htm
http://www.mlssa.asn.au/nletters/november2008.htm
)
*A follow-up article to “Captain Swiggs (& some of
the ships associated with him and his family)” is being published in the April
2009 issue of the “MLSSA Newsletter”. It is titled “The Ketch Vivid”.
The above
articles (except those marked ‘*’) were submitted to the Port Adelaide
Historical Society in 2008. Three follow-up articles (those marked ‘*’) are
included with this Application Form.”
Nudibranch Discovery At Port Hughes Jetty
by Steve Reynolds
Hank van der Wijngaart, President of the Scuba Diver Federation of SA went
diving at the Port Hughes jetty on Sunday 28th Dec 2008. He found a nudibranch
on one of the jetty pylons* there.
* (I prefer to call them ‘piles’. Pylons go up, piles go down.)
Despite the surgy conditions there, he managed to take a reasonable photo
of the nudibranch. Hank thought that it might have been a specimen of Hypselodoris
infucata but wanted expert confirmation to be
certain of his find.
When he arrived back home that night, Hank couldn’t wait to email his
nudibranch photo off to Neville Coleman’ World of Water for expert
identification. Here is the message that he sent along with his photo: -
“Hi Neville,
Went diving at Port Hughes jetty, western side of Yorke Peninsula on
Sunday, 28th Dec.
(34o04'37.74"S 137o32'37.68" - not
sure if you have dived this area of South Australia.)
Water was surging a bit so wasn't able to stabilise very well so this is the
best shot I could take.
I have never
seen it before and was wondering if this is a specimen of Hypselodoris
Infucata.
Photo was taken with a Canon Powershot A540 at
11:45am on one of the jetty pylons. It was the only specimen I was able to
find.
Photo details:
speed 1/40, f3.2 focal length 8mm, 180 dpi, resolution 2272 x 1704 at 24bpp.”
Neville’s reply
came back as follows: -
“Dear Hank,
Yes, I have
dived the jetty, it’s a great dive and lots of great
species there.
FAMILY: Chromodorididae
COMMON NAME:
Painted Hypselodoris
SCIENTIFIC NAME:
Hypselodoris infucata
REMARKS:
Found in South Australia, Western Australia, Northern Territory and
northern Queensland, this species is widely distributed from the Red Sea to
Okinawa. It grows to 45 mm and feeds on sponges Dysidea
sp. The species is very variable.
See page 179/1,2,3,4,5. “Nudibranchs Encyclopedia”*.
Best wishes, Neville”
Hank says, “When (I) chased this further, I discovered that it is found
commonly in the tropical areas and found in Spencer gulf because this gulf
tends to be warmer than other parts of the
southern ocean so is able to survive quite well.”
* There are also
three photos of the species on page 80 of Neville’s book “1001 Nudibranchs”.
One was taken at Edithburgh, one at Fremantle and the other one in Bali. There
are also a couple of photos on page 161 in Karen Gowlett-Holmes’
book “A field guide to the marine invertebrates of South Australia. Karen says
that the species is widespread in the tropical Indo-Pacific and mostly found in
SA from late spring to autumn.
Congratulations to Hank on his discovery. His photo may be a worthy
addition to our Photo Index.
Hank’s photo of a nudibranch found at Port Hughes
jetty
KANGAROO ISLAND PENGUIN CENTRE
KINGSCOTE WHARF.
P.O. BOX 536,
KINGSCOTE. K.I. SA 5223 PH: 08)8553 3112
FX: 08)8553 3025
OPEN EVERY EVENING
TOURS TAKE 1 HOUR AND INCLUDE OUR GUIDES FEEDING SOME OF THE SEACREATURES IN OUR SALTWATER AQUARIUMS FOLLOWED BY A TORCHLIT FORESHORE WALK AMONGST KINGSCOTE’S LITTLE PENGUIN COLONY WHERE ON DARK NIGHTS WE LOOK AT THE EVENING STARS.
IN BETWEEN THE TOURS THERE IS AN OPPORTUNITY TO LOOK AT THE AQUARIUMS ONLY at $2.00 EACH.
TOURS & OPENING HOURS
(times change during the year due to daylight saving)
Opening Hours: April, May, June, July, August, September.
7.00 pm. Tours: 7.30 pm & 8.30 pm
Opening Hours: Early October, November, February, March.
8.00 pm. Tours: 8.30 pm & 9.30 pm.
Opening Hours: November, December.
8.15. pm. Tours: 8.45 pm & 9.30 pm
PRICES to 1/4/09 (Phone to check after this date)
Adults: $15.00
Child: $ 6.00 (3 years old to 14 years inclusive)
Family: $36.00 (2 adults & 2 children, extra child $3.00)
Concession/Student: $13.00 (must show card)
PELICAN FEEDING
5.00 PM EVERYDAY AT THE KINGSCOTE WHARF.
A popular lively & informative talk at the water’s edge at a cost of $3.00 per person.